


Will of Eternity

by RingPing



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon), Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Bickering, Character Death, Crossover, Exploration, Freeform - Blackstone fortress, Gen, Gore, Horror, Mutation, Mystery, Original Character-centric, Possession, Tension
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:33:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28077759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RingPing/pseuds/RingPing
Summary: As the rebellion on Earth rages for its ninth century, a strange event occurs elsewhere in the gem empire as on a far flung colony the erratic tides of the immaterium deposits a gigantic mysterious wreckage in its orbit. These are the tales of the unfortunate lost souls sent to venture inside its cursed halls. (Semi-prequel to A True Red Angel but can be read as a standalone fic.)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter 1

**Plarous 2**

Plarous 2 was a planet that sat near the edge of the galaxy. On the ground it appeared typical of most of the colonies founded by Yellow Diamond, with its titanic high rising buildings layed out in an organised grid system while wide roads allowed for rapid and efficient travel of its denizens to maximise productivity. 

On the street level millions of lower caste gems busied themselves on their holoscreens as they sought to do some work while on the way to their next destination. Meanwhile a few of the aristocracy on the upper walkways that hung above did the same, but with far more poise as their pearl servants trailed silently behind them. All of this happened under the watchful eye of the battalions of citrines led by their yellow lace agates that marched in their set patrol paths with cold authority, watching the populace go about their day with steely gazes to make sure nothing was out of order.

Within the buildings themselves gems of all sorts buried themselves in work, the work ethic ingrained within their programming demanding nothing short of perfection in every movement they make. As this happened on the ground, in the sky fiery engines from hundreds of starships and dozens of ghostly blue columns of light coming off of warp pad activations soared up into the night, remaining stopped for not even a moment as they ferried resources and people to and from domestic destinations within the system or to others across the galaxy. 

It was a cut and paste, though no less great, example of the ideology of the yellow court at work. Logic, pragmatism and discipline were all put to work in tandem, where together they formed an industrial and militant machine that never rested and was unfaulted in delivering its quotas or in knowing its loyalties. 

Then, in a single moment this hive of activity was halted as everyone’s attention was pulled to the dark sky as it was wrended apart, causing it to change into a twisted version of day when a sinister purple formation similar to their daytime sun in brightness was spawned to light up the dark for all to see. A pulse of energy shot forth from the rift, the laws of physics temporarily failing in the local area as space morphed in ways it should never be able to in its wake, any ships unlucky enough to be in the vicinity suddenly being dragged closer into the tear in reality.

Everyone on the ground no longer looked at the strange event in curiousity, but in horror. Eyes went wide as they were forced to watch helplessly while the thin trails of light coming from multiple ships that contained potentially thousands of crew were getting sucked ever nearer into what was likely to be their doom.

Though just as the closest ones were about to be sucked in never to be seen again, fortune saved them as the rift began to spit matter out instead. But their salvation nearly ended them as well when randomly sized pieces of rock and torn metal started to be spat out, the debris flew out at such speeds that it would have been lethal should it have collided with any of the escaping craft.

Thankfully, as a result of their panicked evacuation of the area, they avoided the magnum opus of the event. The rift became even larger and its energy bursts more violent until its light covered nearly a tenth of the entire horizon on that side of the planet, bathing its denizens on the surface of the world in a bright purple haze. 

With a final violent heave of immaterial force that acted like an EMP to silence lights all across the planet, the colony was gifted with another moon when a practically solid black object easily over four hundred miles across was vomited out. After this climax, the rift was dissipated as the entirety of the object exited and the sky returned to inky night. 

As the people on the surface slowly faced away from the space above and returned to their duties the object entered a stable orbit above the planet, and as it hovered ominously overhead its darkened form was made slightly visible to those on the ground by the light of the planet’s natural moon glinting off of its shining, enigmatic hull.

**Plarous 2-1, Diamond Base**

Even here, in the heart of the colony’s operations upon the lone orbiting moon, the ceaseless movement of workers stopped. Being closer to the event and with no atmosphere to protect them, the machinery in the base temporarily ground to a halt as the waves of energy that it had emitted struck and overloaded most of the reactors that powered it 

Though as luck would have it, the peridots assigned there had worked quickly to mitigate much of the otherwise catastrophic damage. Just as the power was slowly eased back on, the control room was barraged with hundreds of alerts and distress calls. An air of fear and uncertainty clouded over the base, but true panic had been kept at bay by the hardwired stoicism in gems of the yellow court as they soon settled down and began to assess what had just happened.

In the middle of it all, the one who was now also tasked with sorting this mess, was Yellow Diamond herself. As one of the leaders of the Empire she understood that she had to set an example and as such remained composed throughout, the only show of emotion she made being the slight scrunch of her face in irritation as she tapped on the flickering holoscreen in front of her. Moments after she did, it connected to another screen that revealed a different section of the base. 

“My diamond!” The green gem on the screen said as she snapped to attention and gave a salute. Even the frantic activity of the peridots repairing machinery in the background stiffened to a sudden stop as they recognised who was on screen and they too gave a set of silent salutes.

“Demantoid, Facet-4X0L, Cut-2TY.” She voiced their designation with slow sternness. “I require a status report on the state of the colony, immediately.” 

“Of course, my diamond.” Demantoid replied as she quickly pulled up screens of information and started to pick them clean of anything she could gleam. She was keen to take this rare opportunity of being directly contacted by a diamond to show herself as reliable and efficient in front of her creator, even if she did not outwardly show it.

“Extrapolating the direction of recent traffic around the planet suggests that anywhere from 173 to 221 ships were diverted from their course by the phenomenon. Combined with disruptions to energy production by the pulses it released, productivity is estimated to be down by an average of 11.6% for the remainder of the year until all the damages are resolved.” She said, her sheer processing power and experience having allowed her to learn that from what little she had on hand.

“I see. You are to monitor the situation and update me further.” Was all Yellow Diamond said while she gave a practically disinterested nod in affirmation as she looked to her own screens once more, only for her eyebrows rise visibly as she saw _what_ the event had caused. Among the mountains of distress calls from the affected ships, the crew of one had the sense to send a visual message. When she considered the uniqueness of the occurrence, everything about it had to be documented for future reference for her to decide how to best proceed.

It was not natural - both the rift and the object it left behind - that much was obvious. But that brought up many implications, none of them positive especially when seeing the current situation in the Empire. Though it would be a grand shift in their species’ history to find other interstellar life, the fact that around a sixth of the surviving parts of the object looked to be composed of nothing but four enormous cannons in various states of disrepair told her whoever its makers were, they were unlikely to be peaceful.

Yellow resisted the urge to huff in anger. So many resources had already been diverted into cleaning the bloated stain on their empire that was the rebellion, and they could ill afford to divert any of their attention elsewhere if the object’s creators came looking for it. But at the same time this thing, whatever it was, represented a strange yet still interesting opportunity. Alien technology could just be the extra upper hand they need to wash away the rebellion, all that was needed was to take it for their own.

_‘If all that has allowed them to survive is their constant use of unorthodox methods in war, then perhaps so should we.’_ Yellow contemplated as she already began to think about how what might be found inside could be repurposed to execute those who dared stand against the Empire.

And there it was, ripe for the taking just over her planet, practically taunting Yellow Diamond with its presence as it lazily orbited with no sign of activity in sight. By now it had spent a good amount of time sitting there, but there were no crafts being launched, weapons being fired and not even any distress transmissions of their own being sent out in another language. There weren’t even any detected energy readings aside from the initial ones from the appearance of the rift that brought it here.

While those factors did not necessarily mean it was entirely empty, there was only so much of the original crew that could still be left alive after a transition into realspace like that. Combined with the promise of leaps and bounds in advancements potentially to be found in the wreckage never even dreamed of by the Empire meant that whatever risks the object presented were far outweighed by the rewards.

_‘And should the threats within prove insurmountable, then I could simply turn it into ash.’_ She thought. After all, she was the diamond given charge of much of the military and navy and despite the sheer scale of the object, she was confident a large enough fleet would be able to tow it somewhere safe then bring sufficient firepower to bear to turn it into nothing more than an over glorified asteroid field. With that in mind she was convinced, this chance was not going to be left to go to waste.

“Demantoid.” She said to summon the head scientist’s attention, not that it had wavered at all in the time Yellow Diamond had been stewing over what to do with the object. “Consider yourself tasked with new orders. You are to do a short scouting mission inside the object. Do not go too deep inside, but gather as much information and items as possible before returning. I will be assigning you three citrines while you are to then pick those peridots under your purview that you deem to have the appropriate qualities for the mission.”

“Yes my diamond, I will not fail you.” She replied. Though Demantoid sounded out with her usual near-emotionless tone, she secretly buzzed inside with enthusiasm.

“See to it that you do not.” Yellow Diamond said indifferently as she shut off the screen. The moment she did, she allowed herself a short groan as she rubbed her temples, causing the comparatively tiny Yellow Pearl at the foot of her throne to look up to her in anxiety. Opportunities in the future there may be, but at present she had to clean the heaped mess in front of her by re-aligning everything in the colony back into working order first.

**Unknown object in orbit over Plarous-2, Gem hand warship**

“What is it?” Peridot, Facet-4X7N, Cut-1DR - otherwise nicknamed as ‘wonder’ by her peers due to her curious nature and the designation of her cut - asked no one in particular as she half leant over the edge of the control room’s holotable with wide eyes to get a better look at the image of the object that it projected from its centre. She was understandably giddy for no gems had ever gotten the chance to study alien technology before but here she was, a lowly engineer, given the chance to be among the select first few.

“I… have no idea.” Another Peridot designated Facet-4X2C, Cut-6RS said plainly with the only answer she had in mind before she turned away from the table and back to making final preparations as they were about to board the object. Her eyes barely strayed away from the wall of data in front of her, engines, weapons, even the empty prison cells were all meticulously checked and rechecked. It wasn’t even the importance of the mission that prompted her to do this, but rather it was done out of almost instinctual habit.

“Approaching the landing area in 10 seconds,” Demantoid robotically called out to the crew of the ship through the PA system, her words being echoed throughout the ship’s corridors while she herself sat immobile at the command console. Her hands were melded right into the control’s holographic display and her eyes were replaced with glistening miniscule white characters of gem glyph, each of these signs showed that her utter focus was being dedicated to piloting.

“Whatever it is, it certainly shouldn’t pose too much of an issue to us. We’re peridots, practically built for research.” Peridot, Facet-4X8G, Cut-9EK said with confidence that bordered on arrogance while spinning her floating chair away from the sensor displays on the end of the table just enough to face 1DR who was on her right.

“But not so much for exploration.” 6RS bluntly pointed out the flaw in her statement though without taking so much as a peep away from her duty, to which 9EK then chose to wholly ignore as she turned back to monitoring the information fed to her by the sensors.

“Five seconds” Rang out another machine-like announcement from the highest ranking gem there.

“Alright enough chit-chat, all of you need to get to the exit with the rest of us.” Came the hard tone of the lead Citrine when she referred to the peridots as soon as the door to the ship’s control room hissed open.

“Those cloddy quartzes and their attitudes. Where would they be without us monitoring them as they grew, am I right?” 9EK smugly whispered to the other peridots just low enough not to catch Citrine’s ire. 6RS’ only response to her comment was an exasperated sigh combined with disapproving silence afterwards.

“Hey, I know they can be a bit rough at times but as soldiers that's just part of their programming, and where would all of us be without that guiding us?” 1DR defended, her eyes at last being shifted away from the hologram as she looked over to 9EK to get her point across.

“Like those crystal gems, probably.” 6RS bitterly added her own few words to the conversation as she finished her final checks and left her post to walk over to join Citrine, all the while causing everyone within hearing range of her mutter to immediately sneer in disgust at the mere mention of the rebellion’s name.

“Landing… now” Demantoid said, now sounding far more alive yet still so stoic when she at last disconnected from the ship as it shuddered slightly when the fingers outside unfurled and slammed down on the object’s floor to form a ramp for them to go down.

“So are the both of you going to follow, or are you going to continue yapping?” Citrine impatiently questioned the other two.

“Hold on, just have to switch this off.” 1DR said as she purposely turned unpowered the holotable slowly in an effort to gain just a few more seconds of time with the image of the object in her sight, curiousity still gripping her tight as she pondered what wonders might lay within.

“Coming.” 9EK replied flippantly as she spun her chair around to face the door, her hands clamping down on its armrests before she did an exaggerated shove to push herself up onto her feet. 

Demantoid followed soon after with a speed walk to catch up with the rest of the group, slowing down as she caught up with them. The five walked through the green corridors until they made it to the centre of the ship. There, the two other citrines that had waited for their arrival stood stiller than statues on the exit point, but upon seeing the head scientist they broke their vigil to give her a simultaneous salute, such was her high status.

She gave them a cursory nod to prompt them to drop their salutes as she stomped her foot down on the floor, creating an opaque green sphere that encased the group before it rose up and phased through the roof then out onto the ship’s palm where it proceeded to roll down the fingers onto the smooth black floor, at last dissipating to reveal the eerie surroundings. Their first true look at the objects insides caused them to suddenly feel utterly insignificant when even their whole war ship was dwarfed by its colossal scale, nothing more than a mote of green in a canvas of nigh infinite black.

The area, which appeared to be one of the main hallways, that they had chosen to land in was at least a dozen miles in width and the ceiling itself seemed to rise to be almost twice that height. That was not even counting the misty horizon of sheened black that stretched beyond their vision as the minimal light that entered was choked out by the oppressive atmosphere. Thankfully, it seemed the inside of the object remained more stable than what its ruined exterior would suggest, meaning it was safe enough to be scouted without fear of being crushed by rubble.

Despite the darkness in all directions and the implications brought on by the damaged state of the object, the thing that caused Demantoid’s stalwart nature to be chipped ever so slightly was not fear, but excitement. She allowed herself a small smile as she thought over the future praise and renown that would come her way should she manage to uncover any remarkable pieces of salvageable, or diamonds willing, functioning alien technology. 

Then would come the secondary, more mild joy born from the chance of being able to later reverse engineer and test whatever she found, documenting every little scrap of knowledge she could. She was made as a scientist first and an aristocrat second after all, and that was the kind of work she truly excelled in.

“Citrine, Facet-0A5J, Cut-8LT lead the way.” She ordered them. Upon the words leaving her mouth the soldiers wordlessly moved into formation around the non-combat gems, with 8LT herself at the front as requested and her subordinates arranging themselves behind.

  
_‘What secrets do you guard within?’_ Demantoid wondered to herself as she tapped on the holoscreen created by the emitter device wrapped around her left forearm to change its settings so she may record everything she sees while providing a powerful green light to guide the group’s way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:
> 
> I realised that for Noctilith to have been created the Gem Empire would need to have gotten a hold of a source of blackstone somehow, and there would probably need to be a damn good reason as to how that happened. Then I thought this fic idea which I've had in mind for a while now seemed like a decent way to explain it without trying to go through the hassle of merging the two universes into one and fixing all the inconsistencies that would come with it. Plus it gives me a chance to practice writing horror stories too.
> 
> This isn’t the same Blackstone fortress as the one where the game takes place in, so sadly (or luckily) there won’t be any randomly shape shifting hallways and corridors for the crew to be lost in. But considering where this one was previously there should still be plenty of threats for them to face!


	2. Chapter 2

“These energy readings, they’re nothing like I've ever seen before.” 6RS whispered to herself while pointing her wrist mounted multitool to scan a sample of the black obsidian like material that had crumbled off from the walls. Though the two materials shared physical features, that was as far as their similarities went. She continued to stare dumbstruck at the results while they continued to jump around the entire wavelength spectrum, never settling on a single frequency range for long.

After a whole minute of this she gave up momentarily and unequipped her tool, broke it down into its main components, made as thorough of a check on each part as she could on the field, then pieced it back together before trying to scan the sample again. But once more, it returned with the same lack of concrete results.

“None of this makes any sense!” She shouted out, only to close her eyes and sigh as she heard a smug huff behind her that was followed by overemphasised footsteps.

“Here, let me try.” 9EK said as she practically strutted over to where 6RS knelt. She was already preparing her own multitool, as if she expected to instantly solve whatever problem her colleague was encountering the second she tried to have a go at it. Though for once her confidence was at least partially justified, since if she had not shown consistent diligence in her work at the reactors of the colony, which involved much in the way of monitoring energy emissions, then she would not have been chosen by Demantoid to join the mission.

9EK then crouched down and snatched the sample out of 6RS’ hand to begin scanning it for herself. The moment her device pinged to signal it had discerned what type of energy was being emitted the other gem braced herself for the wave of gloating that would follow.

“See? Maybe you just needed to pay more attention during maintenance…” 9EK trailed off as the holoscreen of her own multitool began to display characters of an alien script where the results once were, only for it to switch off on its own accord before it switched back on again without any command. Bewildered but ultimately resolute, she then tried to scan the sample again, only to suffer from the same issues that troubled 6RS earlier.

“There’s obviously some sort of… some sort of… disruption effect being caused by the strange material this derelict is made of!” 9EK stuttered out a reason in defense, a tired deadpan expression aimed at her being 6RS’ only response.

“Give me that back.” She said with a hint of contempt as she swiped the stone back into her own grasp to study it again. “Don’t you have something else to be tending to?” 6RS complained to 9EK upon seeing that she had yet to leave her alone.

“Oh, I do in fact. Here, feast your vision spheres at  _ this _ .” She declared as part of her multitool began to glow a bright green. She then put her hand to that part and pulled out what at first appeared to be a chunk of hardlight, however that then solidified into a blocky silver object with a cracked ridged section of coils running along the rear part of the top that thrummed subtly with blue light. Her hand was firmly placed around the handle as she proudly brandished her earlier find for all to see.

“You’ve already shown it to everyone before. But do you even know how it works, or what its purpose is?” 6RS asked wearily, still annoyed at her associate’s brash behaviour.

“It might be a plasma based welding tool of some kind, but I’m not entirely sure.” 9EK admitted, a rare event indeed. “I’ve pushed on the activation mechanism on the handle before to see what it’d do, but this was the only thing that happened.” She said as she proved her point by clamping down on the trigger, pointing the end with the hole in it to her face while she did as if staring at it hard enough would make it work again. Though as a precaution she did stretch her arm out all the way to make sure her face was not scorched if it did end up functioning again.

A loud whine came from the item as the coils on its back glowed intensely, threatening to explode with the force of the miniature star that it contained within, only for a small blue puff to come out when she released her grip. The puff itself then instantly cooled down into hydrogen gas as it made contact with the frigid air within the monolithic hallway, which itself was almost as cold as open space seeing as how the destruction the object had endured meant that much of its insides were left exposed to the uncaring void outside.

Both 6RS and 9EK sat quietly in disappointment at the result, but for vastly different reasons. The bold engineer wanted it to work, as a live demonstration would allow her to learn far more than simple analysis. Meanwhile the serious scientist secretly wished that the welding tool would work again, but in a way so that it shot out a flame so violent that it would weld her fellow co-worker’s mouth shut despite the distance formed by their outstretched arm.

“Looking at the damage it's taken, you should probably put that back in storage for safekeeping.” 6RS suggested. To her surprise 9EK then actually listened, but that was likely only because she was already about to do it herself anyways - she may have been boundlessly arrogrant, but she was certainly not incompetent. The item was pressed down on her multitool, making it transform into light again and sink back into the small pocket dimension within.

“Now, where were we?” 9EK said as she brazenly stole the material sample again, much to the scientist’s displeasure.

Elsewhere in the general vicinity, the third peridot and Demantoid herself had spread out to investigate their own patches, and though they were hungering to find novelties of their own, they still made an effort not to stray too far from the observant watch of the three citrines. They themselves formed a triangle, the lead one facing to the path forwards while the other two kept an eye on the area where they had come from.

“Hey 8LT! These things over here look about your size.” 1DR called out to the hulking soldier as she pointed to what seemed to be a suit of ruined armour that was half buried in a pile of rubble. Though Citrine didn't even acknowledge her call, 1DR’s cheery mood remained uninterrupted as she tore out as much of the equipment as possible in order to get a better look at it.

“Cut-1DR what have you discovered?” Demantoid said upon her approach to investigate, her attention having been redirected by the words of her subordinate.

“Your clarity, it looks a set of some kind of armour. Quite, hnngh, heavy too.” She answered while hauling the chestplate out, straightening her posture to perform the diamond salute to her superior when she finished. So far she managed to pull much of the upper half of the suit that also included a helmet, a pauldron and part of the upper arm plating out into the open.

Demantoid subtly hummed in approval as she analysed the find with her more advanced multitool. While she waited for her scans to finish she passively looked over the suit itself. The first thing that caught her eye were the symbols decorating the suit, and while the Empire utilised symbols on their equipment too, the amount of ornamentation on it felt excessive in comparison. 

Charred as it was, the gold finished winged insignia that jutted out of the front still dominated the chestplate’s front, bellowing out authority with the mere presence of it. Then came the symbol on the singular bulky shoulder plate, which appeared to be painted on it in black over a yellow background. It was in the fierce visage of a snarling sharp toothed creature, at least if she was right in thinking the parts that where the black colouration was absent were meant to represent an eye and a mouth.

As she hoisted up the pauldron to document the emblem on it for later reference, it dawned on her just how large even this individual piece of the suit was - when at that distance it was plainly laid out before her eyes that it was nearly the width of her upper torso. With that knowledge in mind she stared down at the chestplate in muted interest, mentally noting down that it was nearly a third as tall as her.

_ ‘Whoever the original wearer was, it seems that they would need to be- wait.’  _

“Did this suit contain anything else within? Something which may look like it could have stored a consciousness?” She queried out of concern that the owner of the suit may regenerate from their version of being poofed at any moment and take offense to their tampering of its equipment.

“No, your clarity, the parts I’ve recovered so far were empty when I found them.” 1DR said. However, Demantoid took her time to reply as her scan of the armour at last brought up a set of results, which told her that it appeared to be made of a ceramic like material. 

Though she initially balked at the idea of using a resource normally meant for pottery and art in military equipment, she quickly saw some of the merits in using a strong enough ceramic for plating. Energy dissipation, relatively good weight to durability ratio, and ease of repair - due to the fact another layer could simply be plastered on any damage and left to dry - being three that came to mind. 

Whether these aliens' methods would hold up to the tried and tested use of advanced alloy in the Empire’s equipment was another question entirely, but it was one she was looking forward to answering by running endless tests and comparisons upon their return to the planet with these technologies in hand.

Realising she would need a more substantial supply of the ceramic than this meager amount if she wished to run tests of satisfactory depth, she set her multitool to search the local area for more, and much to her delight a blip immediately appeared on her holoscreen, and from the intensity of it, it seemed to point her towards a far larger source.

“Hmm, I see. As it is too large to store, place a beacon where you have found the armour so it can be taken on the return journey, and be quick about it, we are due to move further into the object soon.” Demantoid at last answered.

“Of course your clarity!” She replied, perhaps a slight amount too eagerly, though still eliciting her superior to nod in satisfaction with her work ethic and moving on to leave her to it.

“9EK thinks she’s so great for finding that little trinket so quickly… scratch that, she thinks she’s great all the time. But I’d still love to see her face when she learns that I found this.” 1DR whispered her thoughts aloud with a giggle as she crouched and took out a small green object from her tool’s pocket dimension to place it next to the helmet. Then with a single touch on the object to activate it, causing it to periodically bleep white and a small red dot to appear on her map.

Standing up and looking around she saw the group being gestured over by Demantoid to reform their travel formation. Not wishing to be left out, she hurried over to the centre of it to rejoin the other non-combat gems. When walking further into the object’ forbidding halls, 1DR could not help but be influenced by the general atmosphere as doubt crept into her thoughts. For no discernable reason than to sate her wayward mind, she checked the time displayed by the device mounted on her left wrist. 

Yet,instead of calming her, the holoscreen emitted showed her what she fretted to see - the allocated mission time had been exceeded by twenty-two hours. Though she desperately wished to ask Demantoid why she had failed to keep track of a parameter, it was not her place, as a lowly researcher, to question the will of one of the highest ranking nobles within the yellow court. As such, she kept to her peace and trudged onwards with minimal hesitation, for she trusted there were valid reasons to backup Demantoid’s actions.

_ ‘Besides, if we haven’t found anything dangerous in three days, what’s the chance we’ll find something in one more.’  _ The reason seemed to settle well enough in her mind, as her doubts were soon swept away and she returned to her usual upbeat attitude.

“Get anything done, or were you too busy looking around again 1DR?” 9EK immediately took to taunting her colleague.

“Oh for stars’ sake not this again.” The researcher muttered beneath her breath, her high spirits immediately brought crashing down.

“‘Looking around’ is likely the only way we are going to complete our secondary objective to recover alien technology.” 6RS butted in, if only in a futile attempt to plug the streams of overconfidence that flowed out of the other peridot.

“Remember to uphold your discipline, or I will demote all of you for your insolence.” The second the steely cold order was uttered, every one of them stiffened their backs straight and silenced themselves. Even the citrines visibly synchronised their marching and improved their already nigh perfect postures at Demantoid’s words, such was the authority that beaconed from her.

“Cut-8LT, turn to the left and enter that hallway. Keep moving until I tell you otherwise.” She commanded, glancing not for a second away from the blinking marker on her holoscreen which was located within vaguely the same area that she had told the soldier to enter.

“Yes your clarity.” Came the reply without so much as an inkling of hesitation, reminding Demantoid why she recruited this Citrine to keep the other ones in line.

The door here was much like the others they had seen across the object - their size likely able to fit all gems but White Diamond herself should they wish to move through the gargantuan entrances, the same strange black rock making up a structure thicker than the armour plating of most warships and with curious roughly hand sized runes carved onto them at a little above her eye level, thrumming with a muted, nearly invisible dark purple sheen.

However, this one seemed to have been blown apart with a huge, jagged hole on its lower part and barely visible scorch marks both on the structure and the adjacent floor proving it. Though whether the damage was caused by the forces it endured in transit or by some other factor, she did not know. But whatever had done it, she was content that more of the object’s halls were open and available for exploration, allowing her to reap the rewards she would find inside.

Abyss flanked the group on either side, the omnipresent faint humming coming from the very walls of the object itself chafing at their minds as they went, though the impassive expressions they wore on the outside hid this irritation remarkably well. They were gems of the yellow court, and it would take far more for them to be dissuaded from completing their objective than some mere noise.

The blip on the screen grew larger and larger while the map of the object was gradually filled in automatically as she moved deeper within the hallway. Then, as they approached what looked to be a makeshift barrier of rusting scrap metal splattered in foul smelling red organic material, Demantoid's hawkish eye spotted the prize that she was being led to.

“Halt.” Was the only word that left her mouth as she spun her forearm upwards and shot her opened hand in a gesture to stop.

And by the stars was she right. Laying slumped on its back on the barricade was another set of armour, enormous in size - larger than what even the most well crafted quartzes would fit in - indeed the behemoth of a suit seemed more fitting to be worn by the indomitable snowflake obsidian honour guard of the white court. Had it not been for the dusty gold finishes and ruby red hair crest, the colour scheme would have fitted the obsidian guard too, for much of it was burnished in bold black paint.

The enraged visage and crimson vision sphere slits on the helmet itself inspired fear, much like the obsidians she imagined being equipped with these panoplies of war, marching forth on the shard filled battlefields of Earth and crushing the rebels as their thick plating swatted aside the hails of a battalion’s worth of weapon strikes. Though again, the manufacturers would definitely need to do away with the numerous superficial decorations that these aliens loved to adorn their equipment in.

Spikes with calcium objects in the shape of a head impaled upon them stuck up above the square hump covering the helmet, which too had more symbols embellishing them. And it wasn’t limited to the helmet either - on the kneepads, on the shoulder plates and on the reinforced mass at the back, which likely contained a miniature fusion reactor if the emissions she was picking up from the exhaust grilles were correct. 

Each of these pieces had another alien emblem, this time a peculiar looking circle with eight spears flying away from its centre. Despite its apparent uselessness, it still represented more information to record, and so she took a picture of each one before moving on to analysing other parts of the suit. However, what addition she did appreciate though was the impressive underslung cannon on the right gauntlet, which approached half the length of a peridot should it have been placed upright. 

Three centuries now she has been lobbying for the Empire to switch their tactics from melee based warfare to a more ranged approach instead to combat the Crystal Gem’s unusual tactics far more effectively. After all, what use were the abominable illicit fusions the rebellion so loved to deploy if their size only made them easier targets for a sharpshooter from miles beyond to shatter the gemstones containing their debased consciousnesses? But as always, the bellicose agates of the war council laughed at her ideas, in their mind seeing the input of a scientist as useless in their field of expertise. 

Demantoid appreciated the order of the Empire and would lay her life down to uphold it, but what she certainly found distasteful was the waste of resources which could have been avoided with better equipment or inventive strategy being handed to their common soldiers. Though, as luck would have it, these aliens seemingly shared her thoughts on warfare, and if their scientists had already deemed this technology to be suitable for deployment, then she would lend an amount of her trust in their judgement.

This then left the only obstacles being the reverse engineering process and convincing the war council to adopt the equipment. Agates may have been part of the aristocracy themselves, but they were still soldiers at the core, and this suit looked as if it would appeal to their senses, even if her reasoning does not. Her hope now was that the underslung cannon it employed would be a way to slowly wean them into her way of thinking with a taste of what ranged weaponry could do, and thus save many future soldiers as a result.

“Cut-8LT, I require the right arm of the suit removed with as minimal damage as possible. Once that is completed, bring it over to me.” Fascinated by the revolution the weapon could spark, she ordered it to be the first piece dissected.

“Yes your clarity.” She replied robotically, with absolute deference to authority.

Demantoid’s face once more broke out in a smile for the blink of an eye before going numb again as 8LT’s gemstone glowed, the quartz then putting her hand to the middle of her belly where it was located and pulling out a grand yellow greatsword. Not the most subtle tool, yet the hefty mass of the suit was not going to give in easily either.

Heeding the head scientist’s order to the letter, Citrine first turned the arm to expose the part lacking elbow plating with her spare hand and stared at the bundle of material lining the inside. Upon gauging where it was best to cut, she brought her greatsword up over her shoulder, and in a single heavy swing she cleanly severed the connecting material in two, but the weapon was stopped short as it collided with a mineralised structure within. 

She tore it out and again she brought it down, this time the blade clanged as it met resistance for a second time. For a third time she tore it out with a sickening crackle and sliced at the exact same spot again to minimise destruction. The precision of her cutting was testament to her experience and training, as at last it gave way and the sword cut through to the opposite side. 

Her blade may have then been stopped by the armour on the other end, nevertheless it evidently did its job as when she unsummoned her sword and picked up the suit’s right arm, the elbow plate was left behind on the floor. Putrid organic liquid leaked out of the front of the removed limb one drop at a time, but it was of little concern to her-

**_CRAWWWWW_ **

“ARGHHH!”

To her wide eyed surprise, the flesh within the gauntlet roared out in protest. It parted, revealing a mouthful of misplaced rotting teeth within as a number of diseased and barbed muscular appendages rapidly shot out from it. The first buried itself within her nose like a harpoon while the second and third wrapped themselves around her left arm, twisting and turning as they did. Gems may be unable to bleed, but pain was not off the table, and in that case 8LT was in searing agony as the mineralised hooks tore into her physical form.

“GET IT OFF ME!” Her normally stoic nature gave way to panicked fear as she struggled to resummon her sword when a fourth appendage fired out and gripped her other arm as well.

The two other citrines needed no further directives to jump into the fray. However, just as the first was about to grab onto the squirming gauntlet on the ground, the cannon it wore fired a three round burst at her as if of its own volition. The shots may have been inaccurate, yet the shrapnel they created upon the detonation of their warhead tipped ends buried hot metal within her lower legs, the burning pain hampering her movement as she sucked in air in a vain attempt to suppress it while she shapeshifted in such a way that the shrapnel would pop out.

“Grnnngghh.” Came 8LT’s muffled cries for help as she continued to fight against the sentient limb, her hands now clutching onto the ropes of mutated meat in an effort to crush it to death.

In the meantime the second citrine made it to their leader, standing to the side of the arm as to be away from its firing arc before she hoisted it up and tried using brute force to tear the flesh that attached itself to 8LT in two. She may have been unsuccessful in that regard, but it gave the fumbling peridots a clear target as the flesh was stretched straight by her actions. 

The energy projectors on their wrist mounted multitools usually meant to provide light were dialled to maximum as they pointed their arms towards the tentacles, cutting them in twain and provoking the mouth they came from to screech in pain, the high-pitched cry exacerbating the fear in their already disturbed minds.

Demantoid herself then ran over to the gauntlet, her far more powerful energy projector already up to power. The moment she arrived, she discharged all of it in a single beam of intense, almost blinding, green light that scorched the organic matter in the piece of armour into ash, ending the nightmarish limb inhabiting it at last. Thankfully, whatever material made up the inside seemed durable too and survived her cleansing with little more than superficial scorching, leaving it salvageable for study.

8LT’s eyes were hollow as she shakily removed the barbed appendages from her body, tearing them out one by one, keen to not leave any of the torturous hooks still embedded on her. She shook her head, her warrior demeanour returning soon after. It was unexpected, that much was true, but she was a soldier, she had a squad to lead, and most important of all she had a mission to finish.

“What… What was that?” 1DR uttered out. The researcher may not have been so acclimated for the brutality of combat, but this gruesome foe was one she had ever imagined possible.

“Whatever it was, it's d- dead now.” 9EK said in an attempt to put up a strong front, but her stutter betrayed the anxiety she felt within.

“What of the rest of the body? What will we do when it suddenly reanimates?” 6RS countered 9EK, beaten but unbowed by the experience.

“There will be no more of this demoralising talk.” Demantoid reprimanded. “Or else demotion will be the least you have to fear from me.” She further threatened, bringing the wandering minds of her subordinates back to attention.

She would not let the Empire’s future be ruined by a few jumpy peridots, not at her hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:
> 
> The size descriptions of the power armour pieces may seem off, but these are era 1 gems so they're far taller.


End file.
